Today's banana republic update comes to us from the exasperated watchdogs at Judicial Watch, which has a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pending in the IRS targeting scandal. Some months ago, we learned that former Tax Exempt Organizations honcho Lois Lerner generates an intense bio-electric field that causes every hard drive that comes anywhere hear her to crash and lose all its data, something that never seems to happen to hard drives outside the government any more, but verily the Age of Obama is an age of wonders. Lerner's mutant hard-drive crashing powers supposedly wiped out a ton of electronic correspondence relevant to the scandal.

When it was pointed out that every major business organization in the world has systems for backing up its data, and every agency of the federal government has rules requiring such backups, but somehow those procedures weren't followed, all the backups got deleted too, yadda yadda yadda. The federal judge overseeing the Judicial Watch suit, District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan, keeps ordering the IRS to explain what steps they have taken to retrieve Lerner's emails, but they keep resisting. They've thrown up a lot of static when Congress asked about those emails, too.

...

... Incredibly, the IRS has not searched any of the IRS’s regular computer systems for any missing records and admits that it has only searched a “database” that it knows does not contain the missing records being sought by the court, Judicial Watch, and Congress.

It's all part of the usual Obama Administration scandal management tactic: delay, delay, delay, while friendly media buries the scandal alive inside its Mausoleum of Old News, and ignored court orders become dusty museum curiosities.

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

so commit political crimes while in govt. job .... no problem ... this is a weird article recently bt George will ... went back to 1996 to show Lerners connection to the demoncat party who was a FEC attorney at the time ... hmmm ...

Rep. Peter Roskam is now chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee whose jurisdiction includes oversight of the Internal Revenue Service, and hence of Lois Lerner's legacy.

He knows how interesting her career was before she, as head of the IRS exempt-organizations division, directed the suppression of conservative advocacy groups by delaying and denying them the tax-exempt status that was swiftly given to comparable liberal groups.

In 2013, Roskam, in a televised committee hearing, told the story of Al Salvi, who in 1996 was the Republicans' Senate candidate against then-congressman, now-Sen. Dick Durbin.

Democrats filed charges with the Federal Election Commission against Salvi's campaign, charges that threatened to dominate the campaign's final weeks.

Salvi telephoned the head of the FEC's Enforcement Division, who he says told him: "Promise me you will never run for office again, and we'll drop this case." So said Lerner.

After Salvi lost, FBI agents visited his elderly mother, demanding to know, concerning her $2,000 contribution to her son's campaign, where she got "that kind of money."

When a federal court held that the charges against Salvi were spurious, the FEC's losing lawyer was Lerner....

Lerner's name now has an indelible Nixonian stain, but there probably will be no prosecution. If the administration's stonewalling continues as the statute of limitations' clock ticks, Roskam says, "She will get away with it."

The first IT specialist to inspect the computer hard drive of former IRS exemptions director Lois Lerner was legally blind, according to an affidavit filed last year by Stephen Manning, deputy chief information officer for strategy and modernization at the IRS.

Manning’s July 18, 2014, affidavit pertained to a lawsuit filed by True the Vote against the IRS alleging that Lerner led an effort to target it and similar conservative groups by refusing to grant them tax-exempt status.

J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice attorney writing for PJ Media, flagged the affidavit which provided the educational background of the IT specialist.

“According to the Specialist, prior to joining the Internal Revenue Service, from 2004 to 2005, formal Microsoft training was completed through Lions World Services for the Blind, a certified Microsoft training and testing center,” Manning stated.

The employee, who was hired by the agency in 2007 and has been promoted three times, began working on Lerner’s hard drive on June 13, 2011, according to the affidavit.

Bonus suspended in 2012 when she exceeded $230,700, federal limit for the calendar year

BY: CJ Ciaramella February 25, 2015 10:00 am

Former IRS official Lois Lerner received $129,300 in bonuses between 2010 and 2013, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show.Over a three-year period, Lerner, the head of the tax-exempt division at the heart of the IRS targeting scandal, received a 25 percent retention bonus—averaging $43,000 a year—on top of her regular salary....Lerner retired in September 2013, ensuring that she receives a full federal pension.

But at least the IRS filled out all the proper paperwork for Lerner’s retention bonus. Other agencies have been less diligent. An Environmental Protection Agency Inspector General investigation found that 11 EPA employees received nearly $500,000 in unauthorized retention bonuses between 2006 and 2013.

New emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday provide more evidence that ex-IRS official Lois Lerner is not fond of conservatives.

“So we don’t need to worry about teRroists [sic]. It’s our own crazies that will take us down,” Lerner wrote in a Nov. 9, 2012 email exchange with an IRS colleague.

Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp revealed the emails in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder....

“This new evidence clearly demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law.”

Camp claims that the emails “build on ample evidence” that Lerner used her official position “to improperly influence agency action against only conservative organizations.”

The Michigan Republican pointed out that Lerner subjected the conservative Crossroads GPS to an audit and personally denied their application for tax-exempt status.

Lerner’s email mocking conservative “crazies” came at the end of an exchange with an unnamed colleague.

“Well, you should hear the whacko wing of the GOP. The US is through; too many foreigners sucking the teat; time to hunker down, buy ammo and food, and prepare for the end. The right wing radio shows are scary to listen to,” wrote Lerner’s correspondent.

“And I’m talking about the hosts of the shows,” the colleague wrote. “The callers are rabid.”

“Great. Maybe we are through if there are that many assholes,” replied Lerner in the email, though the pejorative was redacted in the email provided by Camp.

In his letter, Camp reminds Holder of other possible biases displayed by Lerner. In response to a news article about the pro-Obama non-profit Organizing for Action, Lerner wrote to another colleague, “Oh – maybe I can get the DC office job!”

Camp called on Holder to “aggressively investigate” Lerner’s actions. So far, Holder has resisted calls for a special prosecutor to look into the issue.

Lerner’s disdain for the right is central to an investigation into whether she targeted conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Republicans have accused the former director of the IRS’s exempt organizations division of possible criminal wrongdoing in targeting the groups.

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Citizens put in the crosshairs of their own government -- how could this be happening in America?

From the ATF to Homeland Security to environmental agencies, powerful forces are turning against Americans who thought the government was on their side.

The truth is, even in the representative democracy of the United States of America, if the government goes after you it can be a nightmare.

In this Fox News special, the Fox News Reporting team uncovers several alarming stories of government officials taking on private citizens who don't believe they did anything wrong.

And that's what makes it so scary -- if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone.

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Citizens put in the crosshairs of their own government -- how could this be happening in America?

From the ATF to Homeland Security to environmental agencies, powerful forces are turning against Americans who thought the government was on their side.

The truth is, even in the representative democracy of the United States of America, if the government goes after you it can be a nightmare.

In this Fox News special, the Fox News Reporting team uncovers several alarming stories of government officials taking on private citizens who don't believe they did anything wrong.

And that's what makes it so scary -- if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone.

That short clip was of one of the guitar makers in this country--probably Fender or Gibson---accused of importing wood that the government claimed was illegal. Happened around 2011.

This is called communism.....a definition of communism below.

: a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property

Logged

I'M A DEPLORABLE KNUCKLEHEAD THAT SUPPORTS PRESIDENT TRUMP. MAY GOD BLESS HIM AND KEEP HIM SAFE.

That short clip was of one of the guitar makers in this country--probably Fender or Gibson---accused of importing wood that the government claimed was illegal. Happened around 2011. This is called communism.....a definition of communism below.

: a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property

the fox story covers Lerner IRS ... Nye Nevada (not Bundy but ANOTHER rancher !!! and the Gibson Guitar wood fiasco ... Continental Oil epa anti-fracking ... The story doesn't get into the political aspects hardly at all ... like these thing just "happen" (only briefly get into how the govt. doesn't like "tea party" people - not the WHY ...

The spring of 1991, Hage went out to the area which the Forest Service said had been overgrazed. Something wonderful had happened as it does every spring in the Monitor Valley: the grass came back. Hage called the District Ranger to come see the area and took a picture of him standing in knee high lush grass. The Ranger responded, "But it’s the wrong kind of grass." The "wrong kind" of grass had been coming up there for decades.

Subsequently the Forest Service began a propaganda barrage and mail-in campaign targeting sympathetic members of Congress like Bruce Vento and Mike Synar. Assisted by environmental groups, they painted Hage as a violent extremist who should be dealt with in an extreme manner. The stage was being set for confrontation.

CONFRONTATION

That same summer of 1991, not long before the Senate vote on the question of raising grazing fees, Hage received a call from an official of the nearby Toiyabe National Forest telling him some of his cattle were trespassing on government land. ...

We know the IRS purposely stonewalled the approval of non-profit applications from Tea Party and other conservative groups seeking tax exempt status between 2010 and 2012. We know the IRS used a “be-on-the-lookout” (BOLO) list of terms which would trigger applications to be flagged for extra scrutiny.

The actual BOLO list, uncovered by Judicial Watch investigators targets:1.“Tea Party”, “Patriots”, or “9/11 Project” was referenced in the application2.Issues include government spending, government debt and taxes3.Educate the public through advocacy/legislative to make America a better place to live4.Statements in the application (case file) that are critical of how the country is being run

The IRS targeted groups that disagreed with President Obama; merely mentioning policy concerns about government spending or taxation could land citizens on the IRS hit list. Being a Tea Party group ensured harassment and the delay in obtaining tax exempt status. The Obama administration used the IRS as a political weapon.

A tea-party group targeted by Democrats gets attention from the IRS—and the FBI, OSHA, and the ATF.

Catherine Engelbrecht’s tale has all the markings of a classic conspiracy theory: She says she thinks that because of her peaceful political activity, she and her family were targeted for scrutiny by hostile federal agencies.

Yet as news emerges that the Internal Revenue Service wielded its power to obstruct conservative groups, Catherine’s story becomes credible — and chilling. It also raises questions about whether other federal agencies have used their executive powers to target those deemed political enemies. Before the Engelbrecht family’s three-year ordeal began, Catherine says, “I had no real expectation or preparation for the blood sport that American politics is.” Sounding weary on the phone, she continues: “It’s all been a through-the-looking-glass experience.”

...

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

the fox story covers Lerner IRS ... Nye Nevada (not Bundy but ANOTHER rancher !!! and the Gibson Guitar wood fiasco ... Continental Oil epa anti-fracking ... The story doesn't get into the political aspects hardly at all ... like these thing just "happen" (only briefly get into how the govt. doesn't like "tea party" people - not the WHY ...

The spring of 1991, Hage went out to the area which the Forest Service said had been overgrazed. Something wonderful had happened as it does every spring in the Monitor Valley: the grass came back. Hage called the District Ranger to come see the area and took a picture of him standing in knee high lush grass. The Ranger responded, "But it’s the wrong kind of grass." The "wrong kind" of grass had been coming up there for decades.

Subsequently the Forest Service began a propaganda barrage and mail-in campaign targeting sympathetic members of Congress like Bruce Vento and Mike Synar. Assisted by environmental groups, they painted Hage as a violent extremist who should be dealt with in an extreme manner. The stage was being set for confrontation.

CONFRONTATION

That same summer of 1991, not long before the Senate vote on the question of raising grazing fees, Hage received a call from an official of the nearby Toiyabe National Forest telling him some of his cattle were trespassing on government land. ...

Yes, they are raising hell for nothing. The stupid forest service does not even realize that the cattle are doing America a favor---getting rid of some of the brush and grass that could contribute to a fire. HARASSMENT OF AMERICANS TO JUSTIFY THEIR JOBS---RAT BASTARDS.

Logged

I'M A DEPLORABLE KNUCKLEHEAD THAT SUPPORTS PRESIDENT TRUMP. MAY GOD BLESS HIM AND KEEP HIM SAFE.

By John Bresnahan and Rachael BadeUpdated 4/1/15 5:09 PM EDTThe Justice Department will not seek criminal contempt charges against former IRS official Lois Lerner, the central figure in a scandal that erupted over whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative political groups.

Ronald Machen, the former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in a seven-page letter this week that he would not bring a criminal case to a grand jury over Lerner’s refusal to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in March 2014.

The House approved a criminal contempt resolution against Lerner in May 2014, and Machen’s office has been reviewing the issue since then.

Lerner and other IRS officials, however, are still under investigation by the FBI for the tea party targeting matter — which is a separate probe entirely....

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

In "End the IRS Before It Ends Us.," Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, argues that Americans have reached a tipping in their tolerance for the IRS and our tax system. He says that once citizens fully realize how the IRS interferes in their lives, they'll demand change. Mr. Norquist discusses his book with Stan Veuger, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Grover Norquist talked about his book End the IRS Before It Ends Us: How to Restore a Low Tax, High Growth, Wealthy America, in which he argues that Americans have reached a tipping point in their tolerance for the IRS and the tax system. In his book, he says that once citizens fully realize how the IRS interferes in their lives, they’ll demand change. Mr. Norquist spoke with Stan Veuger, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Lois Lerner is a central focus of lawmakers’ probes into the alleged targeting of tea-party groupsBy John D. McKinnon June 25, 2015 8:14 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—Thousands of missing Lois Lerner Internal Revenue Service emails from the crucial 2010-2011 time frame were lost when backup digital tapes were erased last year, the agency’s inspector general has found in an investigation.

The emails were first lost when Ms. Lerner—then the head of the tax-exempt division of the IRS—suffered a hard-drive crash in mid-2011.

Investigators had hoped to find the missing emails in backup tapes.

Now it turns out that 422 backup tapes from the crucial period were routinely erased by IRS workers. The tapes were destroyed in March 2014, according to the Treasury inspector general for the IRS, J. Russell George. That is long after lawmakers started trying to obtain all of Ms. Lerner’s emails.

The finding means that much of the mystery surrounding alleged Internal Revenue Service targeting of tea party groups likely will continue.

Ms. Lerner has been a central focus of lawmakers’ probes into the alleged targeting of tea-party groups starting in early 2010, as they sought tax-exempt status. She has denied doing anything wrong.

...Other backup tapes have yielded about 1,000 Lerner emails that had not previously been discovered but Mr. George said they didn't provide additional information for the investigation.

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

President Obama defended the IRS Tuesday in an interview with “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, saying the tea party-targeting scandal was actually Congress‘ fault for passing “a crummy law” and that the real problem is the agency doesn’t have enough money.

Mr. Obama, who has overseen a series of scandals at the IRS, the Veterans Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and now the Office of Personnel Management, was asked why government didn’t seem to be working on his watch.

During the July 21 airing of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart told President Barack Obama he needs to act quickly if he’s going to “take away Americans’ guns and declare martial law.”

Obama walked out to sit beside Stewart amid rousing rounds of applause. The two exchanged niceties amid laughter, with Stewart pointing out Obama has “about a year” left in office and Obama responded by saying he is going to issue an executive order forbidding Stewart from leaving The Daily Show. (Stewart previously announced he is leaving the show in August.)

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

The chairman of the top House committee probing the IRS political witch hunt of President Obama's foes said documents prove that the agency targeted conservatives and then tried to destroy the evidence and he promised "news" on the panel's investigation next week.

"I promise you – there will be news on the IRS side as early as next week. So stay tuned," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Chaffetz this week detailed elements of his panel's probe in an address to the Ripon Society in Washington, accusing the IRS of violating a House subpoena in destroying evidence and mocking President Obama's claim on Jon Stewart's Comedy Channel show that "the real scandal around the IRS" is underfunding the agency....

"Probably the biggest thing our committee is looking at is the IRS," said the Utah lawmaker. "You have political targeting that is factual at this point. There are no ifs, ands or buts. You had groups within the IRS who were politically targeting conservatives and impeding their First Amendment rights," he added....

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

Republicans slammed the Friday announcement by President Donald Trump’s justice department that it will not investigate the official who allegedly oversaw the IRS’ secret sabotage of Americans’ civic groups before the 2012 election.

“This is a terrible decision,” said a statement from Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees taxes and the IRS. His statement continued:

It sends the message that the same legal, ethical, and Constitutional standards we all live by do not apply to Washington political appointees – who will now have the green light to target Americans for their political beliefs and mislead investigators without ever being held accountable for their lawlessness. Not only has the Department of Justice chosen not to hold [IRS manager] Lois Lerner criminally liable for obstructing an official investigation by the Inspector General, the Department continues to defend the Internal Revenue Service’s unconstitutional actions against taxpayers in ongoing civil litigation.

“The decision not to prosecute Lois Lerner is a miscarriage of justice,” said an accompanying statement from the chairman of the tax policy subcommittee, Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam. He continued:

On top of Ms. Lerner’s actions against taxpayers – denying tax-exempt status to groups for political gain and failing to protect taxpayer information – the Department’s response blatantly ignores our most troubling finding: that Ms. Lerner intentionally misled federal investigators in a flagrant violation of the law. This is unacceptable and Ms. Lerner must be held accountable. Our democracy is injured when those who taxpayers entrust with great authority ignore the law to advance their own political agenda without repercussion.”

Tom Fitton, head of the Watchdog law firm Judicial Watch, joined the criticism, saying:

DOJ and FBI conspired with Lerner's IRS. No surprise they won't prosecute her or themselves. @realDonaldTrump should order a review.12:17 PM - Sep 8, 2017

The scandal has been underway since 2013 when the IRS admitted that its officials had slow-rolled and blocked routine requests for tax-exempt status from conservative Tea Party groups while giving quick approval to liberal groups. That obstruction of tax-exempt status made it difficult for the conservative groups to raise funds needed to campaign against then-president Barack Obama during the 2012 election. Under Obama, the IRS and the justice department stonewalled and blocked subsequent investigations, via many tactics such the destruction of email records.

GOP officials and members of the non-profit groups hoped that Trump’s deputies would investigate and prosecute the wrongdoing.

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL) issued the following statements in response to a letter from Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not fulfill their request to review the Ways and Means Committee’s 2014 referral for Lois Lerner, a former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Director under the Obama Administration, to be criminally prosecuted.

As Chairman Brady said:

“This is a terrible decision. It sends the message that the same legal, ethical, and Constitutional standards we all live by do not apply to Washington political appointees – who will now have the green light to target Americans for their political beliefs and mislead investigators without ever being held accountable for their lawlessness. Not only has the Department of Justice chosen not to hold Lois Lerner criminally liable for obstructing an official investigation by the Inspector General, the Department continues to defend the Internal Revenue Service’s unconstitutional actions against taxpayers in ongoing civil litigation.

“I have the utmost respect for Attorney General Sessions, but I’m troubled by his Department’s lack of action to fully respond to our request and deliver accountability. Today’s decision does not mean Lois Lerner is innocent. It means the justice system in Washington is deeply flawed.”

Chairman Roskam added:

“The decision not to prosecute Lois Lerner is a miscarriage of justice.....

Logged

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole ; He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. - Job 5